14 Jul Failure, a Success in Light of the Gospel
Achievement is the currency of the day. More than certifications, degrees, or tenure, our accomplishments weigh the heaviest in any valuation. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it does curb our mindset to avoid failure at all costs. Failure immediately translates into negativity, waste, and loss. What we don’t often realize is how useful failure can be.
The story of Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve elite disciples of Jesus, is one of the saddest in the whole of the Bible. Hand-selected by Jesus himself as one of only twelve men to live with, travel with, and learn from a unique relationship with Jesus, Judas would eventually throw his opportunity and fortune out the window for a sack of silver, only to realize his sin, cast his prize aside and end his own life. One could certainly look on this story and think: “what a failure.” And to be fair, Judas was a failure.
What’s interesting to study here is how Jesus viewed it. After all, Jesus recruited these guys, knowing full well and even stating to them on several occasions that He knew one of his trusted few would stab Him in the back. So why would Jesus, in a way, orchestrate his own demise and failure?
Maybe there’s more to failure than the negative; maybe failure can bring with it grace, beauty, and redemption.
Jesus prays in Gethsemane that, if possible, the Father execute His divine plan through any other means. In the end, however, He accepts His role, the failure of Judas, and the appearance of a failed ministry (one that would end in crucifixion) knowing that victory would follow. Jesus even uses the knowledge of His betrayal to teach His disciples about humility and grace, washing the feet of the one who would fail Him.
As the Scripture lays it out in Matthew 27, Judas is quickly aware of his own failure, propelling him to a quick apology of his actions and relinquishing of his treasure. He owns his own failure, calls his sin out for what it is, and sadly chooses to take his own life as a result. The point is that it took a massive failure for Judas to be fully aware of his own unbelief.
For me, failure has become a regular occurrence. At work we have a special segment of our weekly team meeting to talk about failing, and specifically how we can “fail forward.” The most accomplished people have failed more times than everyone else has even tried. Being afraid of failure limits us in what we have the opportunity to learn. Failure is a fantastic teacher if we choose to let it be a stepping-stone rather than a black spot on our reputation. Failure keeps me humble, keeps me in tune with my shortcomings, and keeps me expectant of growth.
Failure also teaches us, most importantly, that we are not God. We are broken people in a broken existence who have one hope of our own failures not eternally crushing us. Jesus says at the end of John 6 that God Himself solely provides both insight and life. Our human efforts ultimately amass to nothing without the Word of Truth.
By this same Truth we learn, as the psalmist did in Psalm 41, that the failures of good men and the triumphs of bad ones are subject to the goodness of God, and our Father will preserve His children. The greatest human failure of all time resulted in the execution of God, but by the grace of the Father this failure culminated in the conquering of death by a sovereign Savior, giving to any who would believe the hope that failure would not be the end of the story.
– Nate Emery